1880 Buckbee antique banjo, excellent cond. perfect action, wonderful sounds

Description

Very good, playable condition. Excellent strong and variable voicings/tones.
It rings.  Signed by Frank B. Converse.
Here are all my videos .
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChuuqnkYm49sYGJuTkEgkYA/videos?view_as=subscriber
There y
ou can see and hear
my original 1880 also
my  two 1880 Buckbee replicas (silver and gold-plated).
Please visit and enjoy.  I believe I  play in a way similar to how Theresa likely did.
Her songs seem to require a straight forward melody line with the nice bell- like effect Buckbee's offer.
Wonderful sounds. Includes:  Your choice Gold-plated or Silver-plated bronze Buckbee wrench key replica, signed black canvas case, velvet lined. Also includes my two book set, "Miss Theresa Vaughn" and TheresaVaughn, the Broadway Years".   After 1900  banjos (even the most expensive ones ) used plywood laminated ( dead acoustically) rims with metal tone rings/chambers to artificially enhance the poor sound. This made all banjos sound cold, hard and metallic ...Steam bent wood banjos have an amazing and variable voice. warm, magical and romantic. see Mark Twain's comment on my Theresa Vaughn web site.www.TheresaVaughn.com
A good ringing banjo was very loved then and today.
Please visit my
very informative web page about Theresa Vaughn,
Buckbee banjos and early Broadway. www.TheresaVaughn.com
I believe in just one hour you can easily learn to play Theresa's songs from her time and also Rogers and Hammerstein tunes that came after her.. even if you are a beginner!  I see those R+H tunes to be direct descendants of Theresa's influence on Broadway in the 1890's.
The neck is of solid walnut with a 0.025" ebony fingerboard and peg-head veneer like the originals had. Buckbee wisely kept the neck weight as light as possible. This promotes the best sound. He even incorporated a very slight back bow in the neck to resist the force from string tension. This made his necks both very light and strong. John H. Buckbee Sr. had great sensibility re. acoustics and design. His knowledge likely came from his experience building drums for the Union forces in the Civil war. 19th Century banjo, as Theresa likely played, is VERY easy and enjoyable to learn.
Theresa transformed Broadway and theater paving the way to R+H from the earlier Appalachian and minstrel music. Theresa introduced Broadway to the banjo ( Buckbee).
A wonderful retired surgeon and lover of banjos helped me to reproduce Buckbee silver plated bronze wench keys. He carved a wood copy from photos I had and donated it to this project for casting and plating it in bronze! The included bronze wrench key ( A very good replica ..your choice ... gold or silver plated) has an opening to accept a chain if you want to use it as a necklace or bracelet pendant.
The tuning pegs are of Walnut. The bridge is made from Aqua timber.  After  John H. Buckbee  and Theresa Vaughn, both passed away essentially all 20th and 21st-century banjo makers ( Fairbanks and Gibson etc. ) began making their rims from laminated plywood. Mass production was in but it had big problems with the steam bending the wood rims. Plywood rims are very dead acoustically so endless metal tone ring designs were invented and patented to try to get sound back. They got volume back but the tone was always cold, hard and metallic. Most people now are used to that kind of banjo sound and don't know what they are missing. Watch the 12 min., test video link on  my website and YouTube There I 'm playing the very first replica.. it was not yet plated or polished. I just wanted to first check the sound and fit of all parts...all was perfect,it sounded exactly like the original I have... VERY wonderful and alive. That video shows it's wonderful tone, The tone/timber is also VERY variable based on how you play it. The banjo head is of thin calfskin. The strings are light gauge steel, with a phosphor bronze wound 4th. I like to tune it in a double B tuning. It feels and sounds more relaxed.. It's the same as a double C tuning but all strings are tuned one step down. Steel strings were already in use in those days. When I researched for my books the late 19th century newspapers advertised them. . For more information you can see five interesting books I wrote about Theresa Vaughn and the Buckbee Banjo.